1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a device for generating a database used for maintaining construction and civil engineering works, and a device for displaying the database, and particularly to a generator and display for a construction and civil engineering database containing the data of long and narrow construction and civil engineering objects such as bridges, roads, and slope faces, which normally cannot be wholly photographed in one shot, and various information linked to such data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, maintenance of buildings, roads and bridges, etc., was performed by maintenance staff patrolling them to visually or otherwise detect any anomalies. This method was slow and expensive as it relied on human hand, and required experienced staff for adequate maintenance. If any anomaly was detected, an expert had to directly go to the site, which made it difficult to take rapid measures.
Therefore, there was a demand for a system to easily and automatically perform the maintenance of construction and civil engineering works.
To meet such demand, the present invention provides a database generator and display particularly suited to use in the maintenance of construction and civil engineering works.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a database generator and display that facilitates the maintenance of construction and civil engineering works, allows maintenance of bridges, roads, slopes and similar structures as one static image (this permits a considerably rapid search compared to when using a video image) allows connection to the Internet, allows maintenance of civil engineering works via a network, and allows automatic analysis and issuance of warnings for age-based deterioration via a computer.
In order to achieve the objective above, the construction and civil engineering database generator which synthesizes a plurality of successive images of a long and narrow construction or civil engineering object to generate the data for said object in its whole size, comprises an image input unit which moves in the direction of the length of said object to succesively capture images of said object; a position measuring unit which outputs data relating to the capturing position; a video recorder which records the output from said image input unit in synchronism with the positional information output from said position measuring unit; an image synthesis unit which, when the information recorded by said video recorder is reproduced, refers to said positional information and synthesizes the reproduced plurality of images into one image; and a memory for storing the synthesized image.
The object to be captured according to the present invention may be very long and narrow such as bridges, roads and slopes, but may also be one with sides that are not so long and narrow, such as a building, or a development of the building, as described in the embodiments below.